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Schlocky Horror Picture Show
TheEvilDog:
I'd hate to be a boar, but the next films I'll be talking about will be more than a little hammy.
Alright, sorry about the puns, but I'm going to be talking about pig films; in particular Razorback (1984) and Chaw (2009). Chaw will get its own post in a few moments.
Razorback is an odd beast (and I'm not talking about the pig being the size of a van). Directed by Russell Mulcahy (who directed Highlander and Highlander 2) and based upon Peter Brennan's 1982 novel, Razorback was made during the world's brief love affair with Australian cinema in the 1980s. The film begins with a young boy living with his grandfather in the Australian Outback, where one night, the Razorback attacks the grandfather's house and kills the boy (considering that the Azaria Chamberlain was still fresh in peoples' minds at the time, this sets up the grandfather as an ignored and distrusted figure for the first half of the film). The film cuts to two years later when an American photojournalist is investigating claims that Outback animals are being used for canned pet food. She's promptly discovered by two local nutcases, who are behind the con and left to die in the Outback.
Which finally brings us to the hero of the film, the journalist's husband, who comes to Australia and find his wife. The film leads to a dramatic climax in the cannery against the nutcases and the razorback.
Considering that Mulcahy was at the time a premier music video director, the film often feels disjointed and a little out of place at times. The film itself can be enjoyable (particularly if you play "Spot Who Was in a Mad Max film" and take a shot). Its not a film to take too seriously though, so watch it and decide for yourself.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-WKSnSagMg
TheEvilDog:
Next up is Chaw (apparently pronounced "Chow" in Chungcheong). A South Korean horror film, Chaw can best be summed up as Jaws...on a mountain...in South Korea...with a giant boar instead of a shark....
Seriously, that's the film.
Well, not quite.
Rather than relying on the usual body horror we associated with Korean horror, Chaw is actually a mix of black comedy, horror, adventure and at times more than willing to take the piss out the monster film genre. Its also one of those films you need to watch at least twice to make sense of it unfortunately.
A town that's been crime free for several years suddenly starts developing a problem with dead bodies popping up, all seemingly killed by a large boar. Naturally, this is a problem with the obligatory town festival just around the corner. The heroes are a trio of men, two police officers and the grandfather of one of the victims (I'm sensing a pattern here...) who are trying to investigate what has been happening and having to deal with several of the eccentric locals (I mean like Hot Fuzz eccentricity...without the murdering of course...). For one of the officers, a young man, this is especially difficult with a heavily pregnant wife and a mother who is possibly suffering from dementia and prone to acts of comedic violence.
Throw in a biologist and a hunter planning on where to put the boar's head and a false sense of security after killing a large boar and you have Chaw. And a pig-baby dream sequence (like I said, the film is somewhat random at times).
I will be the first to admit that Chaw can be a difficult film to understand at times and it leaves you wondering what the film really wanted to do with itself, hence the need to watch it again to try and get some semblance of sanity.
As strange as Chaw might be at times, like many things, it deserves a chance and for people to make their own decisions about it.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1mwgvgOIu8
ackblom12:
Wild Boars are frightening enough without turning them into house sized monstrosities damn it.
Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979):
So when Dawn of the Dead was released in Europe it was called Zombi. It did very well and so Italian director Lucio Fulci decided to rename a script he had finished a couple of years earlier to ride on it's coat tails in a bit of a cynical cash grab. Zombie 2 (aka Zombie flesh Eaters, aka Zombie) was released and made it's money back quite quickly, though it ended up tarnishing it's long term reputation, which is really unfortunate due to the fact this is actually a rather good zombie film that sets itself apart quite well from Romero's setting.
An empty boat shows up at a New York pier, and when a pair of policemen show up to investigate, one is killed by the lone and now undead passenger. A journalist who happens to be the daughter of the owner of the boat, wants to find out what happened to her father. A detective decides to help her whether she wants it or not and they venture off to Matul Island, where they find a Western Dr. trying his hardest to cure what seems to be a zombie plague that is beginning to grow out of control. I'm guessing you know what happens from here.
So, the most obvious thing that differentiates this film from popular zombie media of the time is that it's in a tropical setting and the zombie plague is due to a voodoo curse. This does a good job of pulling more from the pre-Romero era of zombie films and managed to influence future zombie films quite a bit in it's own way. Really low budget, lots of gore and some makeup work that manages to be both amateurish and fantastic at the same time. It's also got a bit exploitation film in it and I think it's worth a watch. The catch being, of course, that it ends up with a finale that involves a few white folk killing a horde of dark skinned zombies.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxRVKmOrN08
Edit: Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention one of the more famous scenes! At one point a zombie attacks a woman underwater. Well, she gets away so it tries to eat a goddamn shark.
ackblom12:
Feast (2005):
So the story begins in a bar that is clearly in the middle of nowhere, with a lot of sad sorry people are just looking to drink their boring lives away, when suddenly The Hero shows up with a severed monster's head. The monsters terrorize the bar patrons and the movie manages to use, and not so subtle razzberries at, an impressive number of horror tropes in it's Celebrity Roast like take on the horror genre. What's really impressive is it manages to not overstay it's welcome. Characters don't have names, they have titles such as 'Hero', 'Heroine', 'Bozo', 'Boss Man' and Jason Mewes (the only named character, played by himself of course) along with a list of traits that include Life Expentancy and Occupation (such as kicking ass) and it manages to not out stay it's welcome. It's funny, gory and it's just a smashing good time. Also Henry Rollins is in the movie and a monster gets it's dick cut off.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnlFfvPqUfg
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=am3mCUsbFoI
There are two sequels which are not as good, but both worth a watch if you are into the right kind of terrible movie. 2 is the weakest of them, but combined they're good bit of surrealist fun. I warn you though that the sequels can seem like just a long string of childish rape jokes at times. I may cover them both later.
TheEvilDog:
Another two-fer, this time with a distinctly reptilian feel to them.
First up, 2004's Dinocroc
Dumbass scientists (is there any other kind in these films?) decide it'd be a great idea to create a hybrid creature from a crocodile and a dinosaur. Said hybrid escapes and chomps on a bunch of idiots. Really, there isn't a whole lot you can say about this film, I've just summed up the plot in two sentences. The only things that stand out about the film is that Roger Corman produced the film, but more than likely, he just signed the dotted line. The other thing is that the annoying younger brother in Lizzie Mcguire gets killed by the creature.
Honestly, its one of those films that every second you watch it makes you wonder why the hell you're watching it. The last time I watched it, I had probably finished a good chunk of a bottle of whiskey, so that should give you an idea of how to watch it.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuQnK1b3VuE
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